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"What fine weather this is! Not very becoming perhaps early in
the morning, but very pleasant out of doors at noon, and very
wholesome—at least everybody fancies so, and imagination is
everything."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, November 17, 1798, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"The work is rather too light, bright, and sparkling; it wants
shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long
chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not of solemn specious
nonsense, about something unconnected with the story; an essay on
writing, a critique of Walter Scott, or a history of Buonaparte,
or anything that would form a contrast, and bring the reader with
increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the
general style."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, February 4, 1813, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).
About her novel, Pride and Prejudice. |
"Do not be in a hurry; depend upon it, the right Man will come
at last; you will in the course of the next two or three years,
meet with somebody more generally unexceptional than anyone you
have yet known, who will love you as warmly as ever He did, and
who will so completely attach you, that you will feel you never
really loved before."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, March 13, 1817, to her niece, Fanny Knight. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"You are now collecting your People delightfully, getting them
exactly into such as spot as is the delight of my life; M3 or 4
Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, September 9, 1814, to her niece, Anna Austen. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"Nothing is to be compared to the misery of being bound
without Love, bound to one, & preferring another. That is a
Punishment which you do not deserve."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, November 30, 1814, to her niece, Fanny Knight. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"A classical education, or at any rate a very extensive
acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears
to me quite indispensable for the person who would do any justice
to your clergyman; and I think I may boast myself to be, with all
possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who
ever dared to be an authoress."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, December 11, 1815, to James Clarke. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"An artist cannot do anything slovenly."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, November 17, 1798, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"Single Women have a dreadful propensity for being poor—which
is one very strong argument in favor of Matrimony."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, March 13, 1817, to her niece, Fanny Knight. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"I begin already to weigh my words and sentences more than I
did, and am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration or a
metaphor in every corner of the room. Could my Ideas flow as fast
as the rain in the Store closet it would be charming."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, January 24, 1809, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952). |
"I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as
ever appeared in print."
Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, January 29, 1813, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).
About her character, Elizabeth Bennet, from Pride and Prejudice. |
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Jane Austen
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